[Techtalk] New system question

[Gene Dolgner]

Greetings!

I half believe this was discussed before, but can't seem to find it in
the archives anywhere, and it also appears that the Newchix archive
isn't available at the moment.  Anyway ...

I recently purchased a new PC, P4 1.4G, completely as components.  Once
assembled, it will run Mandrake 8.1.  I assembled what I felt was a
minimal number of pieces to be sure it worked before putting everything
in place, cabinet, power supply, motherboard, ram, graphics card,
monitor, keyboard, mouse, hard drive, floppy, DVD drive, and appropriate
cabling.  As far as I can see, and as far as documentation has been able
to tell me, it all looks good and makes sense (for what that is worth).

When I power it up, all the drive lights and fans come on appropriately,
but there is no display to the monitor, and a few seconds into the
process, it all comes to an end and things get real silent (except for
the fans, of course).

I discovered last night that I had not hooked up the speaker.  After
doing so, I received a sequence of beeps during the boot process.  I
have heard that this can give you vital information as to what is
wrong.  Does anyone know where I can find documentation on what these
mean?  And, is it specific to a given motherboard?

If anyone is interested, the sequence is as follows.  2 very quick beeps
followed by 8 beeps in a row.  Once the light on the front panel goes
out, there are 2 beeps, a pause, then 1 more.

I know the monitor displays, as it complains if it is disconnected from
the graphics card.

Thanx in advance,
Gene